ANNAPOLIS - The Labor Day holiday marks the traditional end of the summer boating season and the beginning of Maryland’s hunting seasons. During the holiday, the Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) will be conducting an extensive enforcement effort spanning the state called Operation Nightfall.
Operation Nightfall is designed to remind people of the need for safety in the boating and hunting environment. Over the course of the extended holiday weekend, NRP officers will be conducting patrols to detect and apprehend boaters operating impaired and in a negligent or reckless manner. Patrols will utilize aircraft, vessels and surveillance units to keep unsafe operators off the waterways.
Roving land patrols will also be monitoring hunting activity, with a focus on safety-related violations and trespassing. Additional patrols will concentrate on public lands, as this is one of the most popular camping weekends of the year. Officers will focus on park quiet hours enforcement and safety issues that infringe upon the quality of a visitor’s experience in Maryland’s parks and forests, say NRP officials.
Although the 2006 Labor Day holiday weekend saw less boating activity than normal due to poor weather conditions, NRP still issued a total of 1,035 citations and warnings. NRP officers investigated one boating accident and one boating-related fatality. Four individuals were charged with operating a vessel under the influence of alcohol, four individuals were arrested for other criminal acts, and one for operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol.